Posted on 08/25/2012 12:09:20 PM PDT by kreitzer
Prediction: If the GOP establishment doesn’t follow Republican Rep. Todd Akin’s example with a big, fat apology – to Akin – the whole party goes down in flames come November.
I don’t mean every Republican will lose, but there is great political peril in not sealing the hole in Republican armor that has opened in Missouri and instead permitting it to remain a Democratic pressure point. Further, “for the good of the country” (the mantra accompanying the party-wide chorus of pleas to Akin to drop out of his U.S. Senate race), Republicans must resume funding Akin’s viable campaign ASAP, after cutting it off in a mad fit of political pique. Finally, every one of them – the party standard-bearer, party bosses, congressional delegations, allied pundits – should come together for a group smack on the head, as in, “What were we thinking?”
I can’t recall anything in public life more widely craven and uncalled for than the open panic and bullying set off across the Republican Party by the first replay of Akin’s perplexingly ignorant interview comments on rape and pregnancy. The veteran conservative lawmaker, former engineer, former businessman and grandfather of eight recanted these remarks. He apologized for them.
But as the left began to bay for blood over a Republican and, by preposterous extension, Republican Party it hopes to smear as “anti-woman,” Republicans across the board, incredibly, joined in. Rather than jouncing Democrats back into some semblance of decent behavior with a firm, party-wide reality check – comparing a dumb comment about rape from one among their ranks with, say, accusations of actual rape against Democrats’ two-term hero, Bill Clinton – Republicans obligingly cut off their own noses and handed them to their political opponents.
The headline in the New York Times this week said it all: “GOP is pressing candidate to quit over rape remark.” Funny how we never, ever saw anything similar in the 1990s, when bombshells about Bill Clinton’s serial sexual harassment and assault of women were a common occurrence. Something like: “Dems pressing president to quit over rape.”
Didn’t happen. In fact, far from “pressuring” the former president into a quiet post-presidency retirement, the Democrats are spotlighting the overexposed sexual reprobate with a center-stage role at their upcoming convention. There, Clinton will officially re-nominate Barack Obama for president.
What else can we expect from the party that still lionizes Ted Kennedy, the late Massachusetts politician who notoriously left a young female campaign worker to drown in a sinking car rather than get help? Just as serial sexual improprieties perpetrated by Bill Clinton don’t count in Democrat-land as “anti-woman,” neither does Kennedy’s unconscionable behavior at Chappaquiddick. Both men not only remained in office, they remain the Democrats’ ideal.
A muddled, recanted remark about reproductive biology, however, puts a Republican one or two steps away from Hitler. He must be shunned by “decent” society, his whole career destroyed, the primary votes he won nullified, to expiate his “sin.”
Worst of all is the Republican Party’s unified acquiescence to this illogical, unjust and amoral equivalence. In fact, without the GOP’s lockstep, take-me-to-your-leader obedience to the Democrats’ rigged rules, the pitch of this controversy would have died down already. Without the Republicans’ vigorous enforcement of the left’s double standards, Akin would probably still be facing favorable odds of winning the Missouri Senate seat.
But no, which is what deeply concerns me. Indulging ginned-up, hack hysterics is not the behavior of a leader or a winner. Worse, accommodating unjust attacks on a solid citizen in the name of practicality or the “greater good” is a very dangerous precedent, as totalitarian history tells us. That’s why the GOP needs to rethink Missouri and make amends with Akin before “moving on.” Otherwise, I fear that in its vital quest to prevent Barack Obama from winning a second term, it won’t be moving anywhere.
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Sorry, If you want to make an argument, make it, otherwise your comments fall into a similar category as Akin’s when trying to sound smart and informed.
Sour grapes will taste really good when McCaskill is enforcing infanticide rights for Obama, right?
Sorry, didn't mean to clarify your meaning for all to see. /s
“That is so damn wrong. That thinking is why we have King Obama. Life is made up of these choices but most of us grow up and realize that if we want to live in this element we have to make sure we select the lesser. Evil is a crock of shit in this perfect life and sometimes we have to be adult enough to accept it and make it better with what we have.”
My first vote was cast on the USS Iowa, when I was 18. I voted for the most Honorable Mr. Ronald Reagan. That was the only vote I was ever proud to cast.
Every vote since then has been for a “lesser of two evils”, and look what we’ve had since then. One disaster after another, bigger govt., more spending, more deficits, less security, more nannystate BS.
I was in the GOP for a long time, but they lost me years ago. I am Conservative, they are not. I will no longer cast a vote for a Republican, unless they deserve it. Thus far, they have not.
As for your comment, we have king obama because most of America wants “free stuff”, Republicans included. I don’t. I want the govt to leave me the hell alone, and if I fall on my own, it will be MY PROBLEM.
I’ll vote for the person I believe has earned my vote by their beliefs. If that is a Republican, fine, if it’s an Independent, that’s ok too. If there is no candidate I like, I will either write in a name I like, or I will skip that particular race. It’s my right as an American. It works for me. If it doesn’t work for you, well.....tough, it’s none of your damn business. Have a lovely weekend. :)
Yes, I’m sure he has many genuine conservative backers.
I feel the McCaskill support has probably tainted a basically good man. But when Sarah Palin did not support him in the primary, it got my attention.
Right on!
This is the GOPe’s mess to clean up, but they may be doing this deliberately, to save Obama’s fat from the fire.
They’re definitely not on our side!
You got nuthin’ bootlick... expound away...
The pro-abort liberal Claire McCaskill must have written this.I don’t believe real conservatives are as stupid as this person. She’s blaming *conservatives* for the wall-to-wall liberal-media coverage, the *Democrat* 30 second ads featuring Akin ... and Akin’s own mouth, in which he inserted his clown feet?!?
Only liberals get so confused with the concept of ‘responsibility’. Real conservatives believe in accountability and responsibility, and the fallout from Akin’s comments fall on Akin - he made the comments.
And if she is for real, she needs to think about the fact that Todd Akin’s remarks have turn a 10 point lead into a 9 point deficit, and he will certainly lose to McCaskill:
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/08/25/mason-dixon-mo-poll-romney-up-5043-over-obama/
Todd Akin had blown a five-point lead in Missouri’s US Senate race and now trails by nine, 50/41.
There is nothing to defend in Akin’s false and insensitive statements about rape. He apologized, as he should. But that wont win back the voters offended by his ignorant comments. People calling for him to quit only did it because we want the seat to be won and McCaskill defeated, and Akin cant do it, he’ll lose.
Folks defending Akin: Will you be proud of your decision to support Akin after he loses to McCaskill and costs us a Senate seat? Or will you regret it later?
Not playing your game either.
The GOPe are the cause of the problem.
They seek to reverse the will of the voters as usual.
Yes, when Sarah Palin didn't endorse Todd Akin, that got my attention as well. It made me think that she (and/or her staff) had not really investigated his record and his "party faithfulness" (for lack of a better term). Todd's first vote in the US House of Representatives was AGAINST GWB's "No Child Left Behind" bill; that had to take courage and backbone.
IMO, the main reason Sarah P endorsed Sarah S was because she was a woman = good old-fashioned "identity politics."
Akin is quite bright and wasn’t takling about “crisis pregnancies.”
His comment was factual, and that is what is really bothering the bed wetters.
I think you overestimate what everybody in the room knows.
I for one have not read all the medical literature on the subject but I’ve probably read more than most on the subject of conception so I know some of the intricacies involved. I cannot tell anybody for sure what effect adrenaline has on ovulation, mucus production, tiny uterine contractions to propel sperm forward, the lining of the uterus for implantation purposes, the softening and opening of the cervix, etc.
I didn’t realize I was surrounded by so many experts on these intricate medical details. Now I feel really stupid...
Oh please.
“Worst of all is the Republican Party’s unified acquiescence to this illogical, unjust and amoral equivalence. In fact, without the GOP’s lockstep, take-me-to-your-leader obedience to the Democrats’ rigged rules, the pitch of this controversy would have died down already. Without the Republicans’ vigorous enforcement of the left’s double standards, Akin would probably still be facing favorable odds of winning the Missouri Senate seat. “
More stupidity. Apparently, if we ignore something, it will go away.
Never mind the fact that MSNBC, the DNC, and Team Obama will play up whatever they want to play up. Never mind that if Republicans didnt respond, the ‘silence is consent’ rule would prevail, and the whole Republican party would be complicit in his comments.
It is imperative to support stupidity
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